


Distance

by Waifu_ckYou



Category: Free!
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-27
Updated: 2015-12-27
Packaged: 2018-05-09 17:08:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,957
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5548517
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Waifu_ckYou/pseuds/Waifu_ckYou
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>written as a present, never really went anywhere</p>
<p>So why my breath faltered and my heart boomed and my bones creaked, I had a perfect guess, as Rin Matsuoka came barreling into me with a vengeance.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Distance

_We did it._

Of all the people in all the world who could possibly have dreams and reach and strain and buckle under the weight of their own need, we had done it.

Treading water, the adrenaline was still flush in my veins, painting my cells with fire and sparks. I had felt it, beyond the ancient tenacious bite of the waiting cerulean depths, the onslaught to my senses and the soaring of my soul, I had felt him beside me.

Had he been in the neighboring lane or the furthest from me I would feel him, the power rolling off in waves as he cut through the water, easy as a breath, strong and streamlined but delicate and smooth. There was nothing then, but the blue and him.

Rin Matsuoka made his victory known in a sharp cry, piercing through the roar of the stadium. It was thick with some tangible emotion, overwhelming triumph like a sharp bark in the atmosphere. It cut through the buzz that was filling my ears as I brought myself from the pool, arms like pistons as they pushed from 90° to 180°. It was as if every person in the stadium had brought their own industrial grade sub-woofer, and blasted their sound in hoarse shouts and banging fists and pounding feet.

Somewhere far away I felt the livid curling tendrils of liquid heat fall away from me, pool water splattering the concrete a shade darker as it spilled from my suit, my limbs which positively shook, and soon after my hair as I pulled at the swim cap.

I had barely a moment to breathe.

I felt the connection of his gaze before I even turned, those fiery eyes locking onto my position seamlessly.

But then I did look, and I saw his posture snap straight, four lanes away. Then he was sprinting, arms pumping at his sides, some alien force driving him from any reveling in his personal ambition, driving him to me.

Haru and Rin. Rin and Haru. We were no longer any sort of separate entity. I could feel it every time I touched the water, when I raced beside him, and even when we stood on rock soil and sand. We were black and white and every shade in between, blooming every second in time. We shared some internal clock, some vast engine, that pulled us from mere rivalry through an electric ascension. I felt his nerves bursting and his heart pounding and his breath biting, and he felt mine. Swimming was our consanguinity, but the fusion between us had been so whole and complete it felt as though we had been born of the same stardust.

So why my breath faltered and my heart boomed and my bones creaked, I had a perfect guess, as Rin Matsuoka came barreling into me with a vengeance.

He stumbled into me but fell perfectly into balance, as he latched onto my neck and I fitted my arms beneath his, hands on his spine and fingers splayed. His breath bloomed harsh against my ear, tousling my hair as he squeezed the life out of me. I even dared to attempt to outdo him, crushing our lungs together.

The roar of the crowd was shattering glass and rolling thunder, but it was nothing compared to the supernova rolling through our chests as we stood flush, reeking of chlorine and adrenaline and the pure perfection of our victory. We had made it.

Rin finally pulled away, and as I met his gaze I felt scathed, scalded by the pure liquid heat spilling outwards in a broad nimbus. They say eyes are windows to the soul, and Rin's is aflame.

"We did it Haru we did it!" He voiced my thoughts with a cracking tone; almost shrill with hysteria and ecstatic rage. When he said my name I felt it in my throat, and I swallowed and managed the tersest edge of a grin.

"I know." My voice was thick, alien. If I spoke much more I would no longer be able to fend off the burning at my eyelids. I glanced at the digital screen revealing our times almost as an afterthought, if only to reiterate what I had felt as soon as my open palm slapped against the submerged pad. As soon as I felt the victorious cry deep in the marrow of my bones.

Rin's fingers had tangled themselves in the lowest strands of my slick hair, and my own digits still felt the muscle shifting and curling in his back and sides. We breathed together, but did not disconnect, not yet, and as a howl that once more cut through the static bass of the rioting crowd drew both their eyes almost simultaneously.

Nagisa and Rei were bound at the hip, hanging off one another and over the railing separating their seats from the lower level. The mouths were open in shrieking cries, eyes scrunched shut and possibly teary. Makoto had a clenched fist in the air, and his posture was the reverse of the other ex-iwatobi students, snapped straight up like a pillar of defiant joy. Gou had the no longer stoic Sousuke in a near headlock, shouting hoarse with more fury than all the boys combined, yet Sousuke laughed it off, abandoning his discomfort at the slim arm at his throat to shout and cheer with the rest.

Further down the row was the Samezuka team, Nitori and the Mikoshibas slamming their feet onto the bleacher style seats, a few other faces vaguely familiar but not solidified blending the regular crowd into the little pocket of familiarity.

Rin's pulse matched mine as he finally separated, and I felt minimally as if I was being pulled apart. The warmth left my arms and chest, though the rising chlorinated scent hung everywhere, regardless of whether it fell from burgundy locks and beaded on my shoulders or pooled together in concrete tomb. The places at the back of my neck and scalp where his nails has brushed buzzed.

Rin looked alive.

~~~

They found us in the concrete maze of columns and towers and walls and benches, baking outside under the intense gilded sun.

It was a flood, spurred on by the initial excited chirp that was shared between Nagisa and Gou. I braced myself for the impending contact, but Sousuke reached us first, and I was not prepared for Rin to spring from his perch beside me to be swallowed up by those broad shoulders and deep blue green eyes. I felt the loss in my stomach, as he was blocked from my gaze, a curious wriggling, that persisted in between gentle and insistent.

Nagisa crashed into me like a hypertensive blond wave, Rei towed along swiftly. Their shouting filled my ears, my own name some kind of awkward chant to my ears. I felt strong hands on my shoulders and tipped toward them, Makoto a rock in the confusing mess of clambering swimmers. They bored down on one another, sliding into a more permeable circular embrace centered around myself, still shouting my name.

"You did it Haru! You and Rin, you guys made it! You're going to the Olympics!" Nagisa was beyond excited, shouting buoyantly.

"We knew you could do it Haru!" Makoto' voice was sweet like honey, and when it rumbled through his chest I could feel it on my spine. I had some inkling that they expected a response, but I had none to give.

"Haruka senpai-" Rei couldn't manage the rest of what he wanted to say, hanging his head and allowing his red frames to slip down the bridge of his nose. He made a few strangled blubbering noises, edging a string of giggling from Nagisa and a good natured chuckle from Mako.

I felt warm, and looked between Nagisa and Rei to land my eyes once again upon Rin, who had been shouldering up against Sousuke is a friendly nudge-match. Their knuckles skimmed together, and they wore matching grins. Gou twittered around them, demanding her brothers attention and pulling him into an affectionate embrace that might've restricted Rin's breathing, causing him to gag and Yamazaki to snort.

I returned my attention to the expectant gazes around me, and offered a small smile.

"Yeah. Yeah we did."

The fell into me once more, a warm mass of cheering and laughing.

They almost overpowered the feeling in my gut. Almost.

~~~

The ocean air buffers against me, a solid wall of tangy heated air carried by the wind. The cut of the offshore breeze is tangible, a seam stitched through the late summer warmth. The sun was sinking, huge hazy and red on our left, casting our shadows long and distorted parallel to the surf.

The sand is warm between my toes, the grit soft but stinging when the wind whips it against my shins. Sweetness is at the corners at my mouth, watermelon on my tongue. The palsy taste is thick in my throat, as the smell of smoke and grilling fish reaches my nose, fighting the restless air.

Rin's voice pierces me like a bullet, as he throws back his head and positively cackles at something Sousuke had murmured beside him. They sit together on a black and red beach towel, set out over the ground. Theirs' is just slightly apart from the colony of blue white and yellow pieces that mark the Iwatobi crew's spot.

Makoto is stretched out, peacefully watching the dreamsicle colors of the sun blazoned sky. His nose is pink with future sunburn, his hair crusted with wind and sand. He looks peaceful, even with the toiling waves so close. Nagisa has buried Rei in the sand, and is now perched on what should be the other's stomach. Rei is shouting, as if opposed, but his defense is lackluster. The soft look that's prominent in his eyes, so utterly gentle and serene. It makes my stomach twist, in something that shouldn't be nerves.

I still feel it, thick in my chest and my lungs. That adrenaline has an aftertaste, one that has completely rewritten my neural pathways to format one ideal, one ultimate goal. And it's not simply the call of the water that I feel dragging me back, the pull against my limbs as I carve my way through. It's not just the utter bliss and wholeness that I feel then, because now I would be missing some imperative, irreplaceable centerpiece, the small cog that turns the whole world.

I would be lost without him beside me. Dragging me forward by the power in his strokes, lacing the water with burning pockets of nitroglycerin. Head to head, neck to collar to waist to foot, the water refracting our light into some tangible beacon.

Like some vicious drug that's hooked me and beat me down. I can only lazily swallow it back and let it ravage my body, my soul.

I hate how it's taken over me. Sometimes I can't sleep, sometimes I can't even breathe. Even when I'm the one taking the race, it's still him, stringing me out and dragging me along.

It's seems it's always him nowadays.

"Haru!"

I snap back from my thoughts so harshly I feel I could have whiplash. I'm looking into those eyes again, those liquid flame and volcanic tier irises staring straight through me.

Rin grins, almost knowingly. I panic before he speaks.

"Sucked into the ocean again? That's so like you." He chuckles.

Even though I am relieved, I deflate a bit. I give him a wry look, before turning back towards the sea. The rumble fills my ears, drums my chest. My heart twitters like a caged bird.

The ocean is nowhere near as fierce as his gaze.

"...I guess."


End file.
